Dealing with Menopudge

Menopudge. . . you know what I'm talking about. That little extra weight that begins to creep on pound by pound and before you know it, it's a full-blown muffin top! Or in my case, a muffin top and a side of thigh bags.

For someone who has been thin almost their entire life, this has been a rude awakening. I used to be able to eat just about anything and never put on a pound. Now I eat half as much, exercise twice as much, and if I'm lucky I can keep my weight gain down to about a pound every other month - what's up with that!

Here are some of the tips I have implemented. If you have any others, please comment.

• To calm my crazy, ravenous sweet tooth, I eat a small piece of Dove dark chocolate. This has eased the binging on 1/2 pound bags of M & M's.
• When I start feeling really crazy and need to satisfy my hormonal imbalance with food, I simply yell.  Not an ordinary yell, but something in terms of primal screaming. This seems to satisfy me for a while and also make me laugh. It also works great at keeping your family out of your way.
• Since I HATE to exercise, I just start running around the house. I go from the basement up to the second floor 5 or 6 times in a row and it gets my heart pumping. It makes me forget how pudgy I've become, when I can barely breathe.

These are just a few of my handy tips. I promise to add others as time goes by.